The present disclosure relates to a vibration generating apparatus.
A vibration generating apparatus, converting electrical energy into mechanical vibrations using the principle of the generation of electromagnetic force, has been mounted in a mobile phone, or the like, to thereby be used for silently notifying a user of call reception by transferring vibrations thereto.
In addition, in accordance with the rapid expansion in market demand for mobile devices such as mobile phones, and the like, increased functionality has been provided in mobile devices. In addition, miniaturization and improvements in the quality of the mobile devices have been gradually required.
In accordance with this trend, demand for the development of vibration generating apparatuses having a new structure capable of overcoming disadvantages of existing vibration generating apparatuses and having significantly improved quality has increased.
Further, recently, mobile phones have been replaced by smartphones, and a touchscreen scheme has been adopted for use in such smart phones. Therefore, the use of vibration generating apparatuses has increased for the purpose of generating vibrations at the time of a touch interaction.
In addition, recently, a vibration generating apparatus using a piezoelectric element has been commercialized. The vibration generating apparatus, using a principle of an inverse piezoelectric effect of generating displacement by applying a voltage to the piezoelectric element, allows a mass body of a mover to move by the generated displacement to generate vibration force.
In the vibration generating apparatus having the above-mentioned structure, a bandwidth of a frequency at which vibration force of a predetermined level or more may be obtained is wide, such that stable vibration characteristics may be implemented.
Meanwhile, a circuit board may be installed in the vibration generating apparatus in order to apply the voltage to the piezoelectric element.
However, in accordance with the trend toward the miniaturization and the quality improvement of the mobile device, the vibration generating apparatus has been miniaturized, and since the circuit board is connected to the piezoelectric element that is deformed, a flexible printed circuit board has been generally used as the circuit board.
However, there may be a problem in that the circuit board that has been gradually miniaturized and thinned in order to prevent interference with other components may be easily damaged. In this case, the vibration generating apparatus is not operated, such that durability of the vibration generating apparatus is deteriorated.
As a result, the development of a structure capable of preventing the damage to the circuit board has been urgently demanded.